Innovation Survey Assessment – A Strategic Capability Diagnostic

InnovationPoint provides in-depth innovation assessments and diagnostics to uncover the strengths and opportunities for creating organizational capabilities and cultures and foster strategic innovation. Learn more about our approach to organizational transformation and disruptive change or jump start your own thinking by taking the assessment below.

This preliminary assessment is designed to help you move beyond a “gut feel” to see how your organization stacks up against ten critical dimensions – but more importantly, you may learn something that challenges your assumptions about what it will take to build a truly innovative company.

Rate your organization on the following questions:

Business BoundariesMy organization regularly challenges its assumptions about customers, business models, and the competition in its formal planning and product development processes

Support from Above & WithinOur leadership supports a collaborative culture that encourages different departments working cross-functionally to identify and develop new innovations and solutions

Industry ForesightMy organization has a systematic process for actively monitoring emerging trends and developing alternative scenarios that represent either threats or opportunities

Customer InsightMy organization directly involves customers (existing & potential) in the innovation process as a strategy for identifying both articulated and unarticulated needs

Strategy Development & Opportunity IdentificationMy organization’s strategy development processes engage key internal stakeholders, customers, suppliers, and outside thought leaders as a way of identifying new opportunities and creating unique business models and strategies

New Product & Service DevelopmentMy organization has goals and measures stating, “X% of revenues will come from products/services introduced less than X years ago”

Core Competencies & TechnologiesMy organization clearly understands its core competencies and has explicitly outlined the linkage between its long-term strategic goals and its short- and medium-term R&D investments and technology strategies

Organizational ReadinessMy organization has adequate staffing, funding, leadership, and cross-functional management support to successfully identify and implement new ideas

Systemic ImplementationMy organization takes a systemic view of implementation and organizational change in order to ensure that both strategic and tactical projects receive the resources and priorities necessary for successful implementation

Capacity for Sustainable InnovationMy organization has dedicated resources and formalized processes focused on identifying and developing both incremental and breakthrough innovations

Scoring Key

35-40 – Strategic Innovator
Your company understands the core elements of Strategic Innovation and is well positioned to remain a leading innovator in your industry. Strategic Innovation is inherent in your culture and new products and services fill the pipeline. What to do next? – Ensure your company continues to anticipate customer needs, cannibalize its own products and services and set industry standards.

29-34 – Inspired Innovator
You’re a solid innovator but the competition is not far behind. The pipeline is full, though breakthrough opportunities may be outnumbered by incremental innovations. What to do next? – Focus on the gaps and move toward being a true Strategic Innovator.

24-28 – Aspiring Innovator
You’re doing many things right but haven’t yet found your mark. The competition is fierce and the future is uncertain. Sparks of innovation exist, though the focus is skewed toward incremental improvements rather than game-changing innovations. . What to do next? – Take a systematic view of the core strategic, customer-focused, and organizational factors necessary for Strategic Innovation and immediately seek out the “low hanging fruit”.

<23 – Challenged InnovatorWhile you may recognize that innovation is important, your organization’s culture and processes don’t support Strategic Innovation. Innovation is ad hoc and breakthroughs happen by chance. What to do next? – Dedicate resources to a focused innovation initiative with measurable deliverables and build from there.

Think others in your organization would be interested in this survey? Send this page to a colleague and compare your answers.

To explore how InnovationPoint may able to guide your organization to greater levels of innovation excellence, please Contact Us.

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